


everything (that we'd ever need)

by romnovs (tashatops)



Series: Femslash February 2019 [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood Friends, Denial of Feelings, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Femslash February, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Jealousy, Language of Flowers, Pre-Relationship, Trans Female Character, compulsory heterosexuality, sakura is trans and you can all fight me abt it, this is set somewhere in the chunin exams arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 04:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17676662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tashatops/pseuds/romnovs
Summary: The thing is, she doesn’t really know what to do. That pang of jealousy is familiar enough that it doesn’t make her uncomfortable, not really, but there’s something different about it that gives her pause — and she can’t quite put her finger on what it is.or,Ino tries to figure out exactly how her feelings for Sakura have changed.





	everything (that we'd ever need)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [binarylazarus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/binarylazarus/gifts).



> this fic is for emilia who got me back into naruto after 84 years and for that i owe her me life. hope you enjoy! shoutout to rory who took a look at this before i posted it even tho she doesn't go here. she the real one.  
> title is from girls like girls by hayley kiyoko bc it was playing on loop while i wrote this and i can easily picture ino blasting that song in her bedroom at 3am while thinking abt sakura and accepting the fact that she's gay.

Sakura and Ino start spending more time together after the chunin exams. Ino is not really sure how it happens, or  _ why,  _ for that matter, but it’s not something she’ll complain about.

She will pretend, of course, that Sakura is still as annoying as ever and that there’s still some animosity between them, even if somewhat subdued, she will bicker and banter with Sakura just like they used to — but the truth is, it’s nice to have her friend back.

Ino feels more and more stupid the more time they spend together. She’s been feeling this way ever since they fought against each other for the exams, but it only grows the more Ino is around Sakura.

What bothers her the most is how much  _ time  _ they’ve wasted, how many years of potential friendship they threw away. And for what? For a boy? Ino’s forehead thuds against the wooden table.

The flower shop is not busy this time of day, so there’s not much to do besides think about Sakura. That’s Ino’s excuse, anyway.

The truth is, each time she hears Sakura laugh, each time their hands brush together, each time Sakura brushes Ino’s bangs out of her face, Ino is reminded of all the times Sakura wasn’t around to do any of that. She’d like to pretend that she didn’t need Sakura in her life, that she never  _ missed  _ her, but she knows that’s not true.

Ino will pretend around Sakura, and around other people, even, but the least she can do is be honest with herself.

These past few years have been rough, especially lately, after her graduation from the Academy. As much as she loves Shikamaru and Chōji — would give her life for them, even — there’s been a void that no one has been able to fill.

Until now, that is. 

Now, Sakura is back in her life. Sakura knows how to talk to her, how to comfort her, she just  _ gets  _ Ino in ways no one else ever has. Ino likes to think she does the same for Sakura, even if she’s never asked her directly. She still remembers those times when people used to make fun of Sakura — her forehead was too big, she was hopeless, she wasn’t  _ feminine  _ enough.

But Ino had always seen Sakura for who she really was.

She blinks. The focus of her musings seems to have materialized in front of her suddenly and Ino has to take a moment to gather her thoughts. Sakura is holding a flower in her hand and Ino can’t help the pang of jealousy that hits her right in the chest, “That for Sasuke?” She asks, more bite to it than she’d intended.

She regrets it immediately, would hate for Sakura to take it the wrong way and for them to start pointlessly bickering again. She sees Sakura’s face harden as she nods. Ino lets out a sigh.

The thing is, she doesn’t really know what to do. That pang of jealousy is familiar enough that it doesn’t make her uncomfortable, not really, but there’s something different about it that gives her pause — and she can’t quite put her finger on what it is. So, of course, she goes with the familiar response.

She takes a look at the flower Sakura’s holding. A yellow rose.  _ Friendship and joy.  _

Well, it seems that Sakura still hasn’t learned all there is to flowers even after all this time. “Something wrong with it?” She asks.

“No, I think it’s perfect,” Ino replies with just the slightest of smirks.

-

Ino goes to the hospital with Sakura more than a few times. If asked, she’ll say it’s for a number of reasons: to avoid falling behind in this competition she and Sakura have going on, to visit Rock Lee, to give Chōji the fruit basket she’d prepared for him. They’re not lies, there’s at least a hint of honesty to all of them, but the answer that holds the most truth is that she wants to spend more time with Sakura.

Internally, she rolls her eyes at herself. She’s sure she looks like a desperate little girl, even if she does her best to avoid so. It’s come to a point where Ino thinks she’s close to figuring out exactly  _ what  _ it is that makes her feel different, and she feels even closer to that truth every time she sees Sakura.

It’s something she needs — something she yearns for, even, to be able to understand why things have changed, why her feelings for Sakura seem even stronger than they used to be. She’s always felt a tug at her gut, followed by something she can only describe as butterflies, when around Sakura, but this intensifies even more as time goes on. Not that she’s not happy that they seem to have rekindled their friendship, but this seems a little excessive, even for her.

Sakura brings Sasuke and Lee flowers every time they’re here and it makes that bitter pang on Ino’s chest flare up, without fail, every time too. It stops taking her by surprise eventually, and that’s when she starts to notice some things.

Some things being: even though she still feels jealous, immeasurably so, when Sakura even so much as mentions Sasuke, she feels the same when Sakura starts bringing Lee flowers, or when Sakura accepts Naruto’s offer to go on a date.

Some things being: even though she dislikes feeling this way, it’s something she finds she can’t avoid.

Some things being: Sakura is really pretty.

It hits Ino like a ton of bricks, the thought that she might be jealous of  _ Sasuke _ , and not Sakura — the thought that  _ she  _ wants to be the center of Sakura’s attention instead. 

It’s something she doesn't quite know what to do with, at first. So, of course, her first response is to avoid Sakura. She makes her mother swap shifts with her at the flower shop, she changes her route to go to the training grounds, and when she does visit Chōji at the hospital, she does it when she knows Sakura will be otherwise occupied.

She’s miserable.

She likes to pretend everything is fine, that nothing much has changed. She trains with her team, helps Shikamaru practice for the exams, and acts like her punches don’t land harder than they used to, like there’s not more force behind her attacks, like she doesn’t have a lot of pent up frustration to burn through.

She passes by Sakura on the market and pretends she doesn’t see the hurt on her face when Ino doesn’t even spare a glance her way. 

Maybe it’s time Ino stopped pretending.

She realizes, abruptly, that she’s doing the same thing all over again: she’s compromising her friendship with Sakura. She’s mad at herself at first, a burning feeling that crawls its way up her throat and takes hold. 

She manages to shake it off — or, rather, takes all of that energy and puts it into making things better. She runs downstairs to the flower shop, turns all the lights on even though it’s the dead of night, and gets to work. She heads to the shelves to her left before she even has a clear idea of what she wants to do, letting her instinct carry her. If there’s one thing Ino knows, it’s flowers.

She stands in front of the pink camellias,  _ longing _ . She grabs several of them and continues moving through the shop. Next, jonquils,  _ desire for affection returned.  _ She starts putting the bouquet together, making arrangements here and there so that everything is as pretty as possible, but something’s missing.

She walks down the aisles one, two, three times, eyeing the shelves up and down before she finally sees what she’s looking for: forget-me-nots,  _ true love _ . 

Her palms are sweaty and her stomach jittery, but she doesn’t think it’ll get any better than this. She throws some actual clothes on hurriedly and takes to the rooftops, making a beeline for Sakura’s house. 

She knocks on the door and starts tapping her foot impatiently as soon as she does so. Somehow, in the hundreds of scenarios that played through Ino’s mind in the five minutes it took her to get here, it didn’t cross her mind just how cute Sakura would look with sleep-ruffled hair and a slight frown on her face.

So Ino panics, pushes the bouquet against Sakura’s chest and looks down, heat rising to her cheeks. 

“Ino…” is all she hears before two arms are thrown over her shoulders and Sakura’s face is in the crook of her neck.

(No, Ino most definitely does  _ not  _ let out a squeal when Sakura hugs her, thank you very much.)

“It’s beautiful,” Sakura says, and Ino melts.

-

A couple weeks later and things are back to normal between them. They start spending time together again, maybe even more than they used to, and Ino is glad she finally got her head out of her ass.

Sakura takes her to the clearing where they used to gather flowers when they were kids, and presents her with a single purple ambrosia.  _ Your love is reciprocated. _

Right before Ino presses their mouths together, it occurs to her that maybe Sakura did know more about flowers than she’d initially assumed.


End file.
